It’s a tough and punishing game where 100 hours of grind means MAYBE the latest boss won’t KO you in a single hit.

It has 18 different weapons that each require a 20 minute tutorial from some guy on YouTube, and each requiring 20 hours to master. It’s a “the wand chooses the wizard Harry” and everyone is going to have their own favorite weapon. I myself ended up being a Charge Blade user, which is the most technical weapon in the game. Using it is like performing a Japanese Tea Ceremony whilst battling a 15 foot long alligator in a small room.

Melee weapons need sharpening mid battle, range weapons need ammo you have to craft before entering battle else you are SOL. Your stamina requires that you eat a large steak every 5 minutes or you will be constantly exhausted.

There is no twitch. Every action needs to be deliberate. A monster takes minutes of constant fire to stun or paralyze, during which time someone with a large weapon administers the tea he has been brewing. It’s called a Super Amped Elemental Discharge.

Loot is random but the part you want can only spawn when you damage the proper parts with the proper weapon.

So what makes me like this game? This kinda gameplay loop means Losing is par for the course. No “git gud” or “skills issue” kids are ever going to play this game. A skilled healer/buffer is treated as a god among men, unlike Overwatch where it’s your fault the team that spread itself all over the map got wiped out.

Tldr. Playing 100 hours of monster hunter filters the player base down to a group of Zen Monk Masochists that enjoy 2 things.

1. Spending 40 minutes taking down a 4 winged dragon that farts lightning every 10 seconds.

2. Each other’s company.

I hope this makes sense.

It’s somewhat like Dark Souls in that there’s appeal in mastering the enemies you fight in predicting their moves and timing your own. Finding a weapon that jives with you, buildcrafting, etc. It is a circular gameplay loop in that you kill monster, cut them up, use pieces to make gear, use gear to hunt better monsters…but that’s not a bad thing I think.

It can be a more challenging game than it might seem on its face, especially Freedom Unite, and especially with the limited control schemes of the older portable consoles. I started with 4U and find I struggle going back to it after playing World and Rise.

For Monster Hunter specifically, as well as other similar games like God Eater and White Knight Chronicles, the appeal is literally just big number go up from grinding. If you don’t like grinding, you probably aren’t going to enjoy these kinds of games. They can easily feel very repetitive.

I want to say researching, preparing, tracking, and finally hunting your mark is the draw. But after playing its got a lot of RPG grind fest elements in it and a lot less mechanics that make you feel like a hunter. Its still fun, and you still do track and hunt monsters. But once the fighting begins it feels more like an action RPG to me.

It’s basically a third person hunting game. With giant monsters.

Your goal is to get gud and kill the biggest baddist monsters in the land. While getting up to that point you can make better and unique equipment from the monsters you’ve slain. There’s item crafting too, from basic health items to different types of bullets to bait and even traps. You can also buy most of the stuff too. There a ton of armor and weapon types to learn how to use.

All the animals in the game have their own “routine”, seasons and parts of the landscape they’ll be in and travel around. Learning thier moves and how to kill them is the main chunk of the gameplay.

If any of that sounds interesting I’d check it out. Each game has different weapon types in it. I’ve played Tri and I think one on PSP.